William Dover

Name: William "Bill" Dover

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: George Hunter High School

Hobbies and Interests: Jazz Music, Playing Saxophone, Writing

Appearance: At first glance, Bill's large figure gives off a rather imposing impression. With a height of 6 feet and a weight of 292 pounds, he's nearly always the largest person in the room. A couple more inches are added to his height by his afro hairstyle, which sits above his wide face. Any apprehension one may feel, however, would be completely disarmed by the friendly, wide-lipped smile that sits below Bill's large nose, chubby cheeks and twinkling dark eyes. He is also African-American, with the colour of his skin definitely on the darker end of the spectrum. Bill is also fairly obese, with his lack of physical fitness leaving him sweating profusely after any significant physical activity.

As far as clothing goes, Bill doesn't really show any particular tastes. with his typical outfit consisting of jeans, white sneakers, and a hoodie or t-shirt depending on the weather. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing white sneakers, jeans, as well as a sky blue t-shirt with a pocket on the left breast.

Biography: Bill was born on April 20th, 2000 to John and Sandra Dover, the first of five children. His parents, having married young and both coming from very traditional families with many children, conceived Bill a year after their marriage, with the remaining ones following over the course of the next decade. As the oldest, Bill found himself often taking on the responsibility of looking after his younger siblings while his parents were away at work. His mother and father, a nurse and a surgical technician at the local hospital, respectively, are often called in at the last minute for work emergencies, leaving Bill frequently supervising his two brothers and two sisters, especially the two youngest ones. With an eleven year age gap between him and his youngest sibling, his relationship with his brothers and sisters has taken on an almost parental direction, leaving Bill extremely protective of their well-being. As he has gotten older, Bill has recognized the necessity of his parents working so many hours in order to support their large family, though it would be a lie to say that he was completely happy with the increased responsibility. Regardless, his family life is still fairly happy, with his relationship with his parents and siblings an overall positive one.

It was during the many nights spent tucking his little brothers and sisters into bed that he discovered his love for storytelling, which has followed him for his whole life. His personal journal is full of short stories that he has written, though it is a rare occasion when he feels satisfied enough with his work to share it with others. When he was in middle school, he used to write fanfiction and post it on various websites, though as he entered high school he lost interest in writing stories set in the worlds of others, preferring instead to spend his time creating fantastical settings of his own. A character that frequently appeared in his early stories was an action hero based on an idealized version of himself, and though he doesn't feel the character would be of much interest to anyone other than himself, he still views it as a guilty pleasure to jot down the occasional scene involving the escapades of B. Dover as he effortlessly deals with a challenge that Bill himself would be struggling with.

Bill is also fairly active in volunteering with his local church, with most of his early formative social experiences taking place in that setting. As with his parents, the church community is an important part of his life, with a large number of his friends being fellow church-goers, and with a large amount of his free time spent helping out with various ministries and outreach activities. He considers himself a committed Christian, though the social and charity-related aspects of his religion are of much more interest to him than theology. The one exception to this tendency is his admiration of the author C.S. Lewis, whom he views as an inspiration both for his work as a fantasy writer and as an evangelist.

Another love that has followed Bill since his childhood is his love of music, particularly jazz. He practices his saxophone regularly, working to emulate the playing of great jazz saxophonists such as John Coltrane and Charlie Parker.. He is also the member of a jazz group consisting of him, his brother James, as well as few friends from the school band who share his love of the genre. While the band has not performed publicly, Bill is definitely excited by the prospect and hopes to receive an opportunity to show off the hard work that he and his friends have put into practicing.

As far as school goes, Bill has been a fairly unremarkable student. The strong work ethic instilled in him by his parents has prevented him from ever slipping far behind on his homework, though his skills definitely lean towards English and Art than Math and Science. In the last several years of high school, he has struggled quite a bit with his mathematics classes, and in fact makes regular use of his school's peer tutoring program. Among his fellow students, he is generally well-liked, and those who count him as a friend know him to be a both dependable and loyal individual, with a good sense of humour. He is occasionally subject to jokes about his weight, though he takes it in stride, refusing to let himself be pulled down by what he sees as being out of his control. Though he admits that he would like to lose weight, he doesn't see it as a priority compared to most other responsibilities in his life, and considering the fact that his mother and a couple of his siblings are also overweight, the subject is rarely brought up at home.

When he graduates school, Bill plans to study journalism. Though he has little interest in non-fiction, his parents have talked him into following a more practical field of study than English literature. He hopes that after he gets his diploma he can work for a while writing articles of a newspaper while he works towards building a career in novel writing. Though the odds of pulling off such a career path are slim, as far as he knows, Bill hopes and prays that his hard work and determination will seem him through in following his dreams

Advantages: Bill is generally well-liked by his classmates, and would have little trouble finding allies on the island. He is also hard-working and determined, refusing to let himself be discouraged by initial failure and consistently trying hard to accomplish his goals.

Disadvantages: Bill is very overweight, and the amount of physical activity that he will have to perform on the island will be quite a struggle for him. His religious beliefs also prohibit him from committing murder, a prohibition which he takes seriously.

Designated Number: Male Student No. 72

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Designated Weapon: Caffeine Pills

Conclusion: I'm always relieved when we don't waste a good weapon on these dopey Jesus types. Makes me feel like somebody up there is looking out for things... oh wait. - Matt Richards

'The above biography is as written by Skraal. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Skraal

Kills: None

Killed By: Nia Karahalios

Collected Weapons: Caffeine Pills (assigned weapon)

Allies: 

Enemies: Nia Karahalios

Mid-game Evaluation: 

Post-Game Evaluation: 

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing Bill, in chronological order.

V7:
 * They Don't Sleep on the Beach
 * Lonely as the Sound of Lying on the Ground of an Airplane Going Down
 * Skin Feels Off
 * Cancer Towers on Holy Road Hi-Way
 * We Drift Like Worried Fire

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Bill Dover. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Bill is a character who comes into V7 without any Pregame under his belt. While this is certainly not unique, and in past versions wasn't even uncommon, here it does stand out to some extent, as the V7 cast was largely interconnected, with shared points of reference, and especially for characters who don't have many relationships established this can make them stick out some. Rather wisely, then, Bill opens with a one-shot flashing back to his home life and establishing his mentality during the kidnapping itself; this gives the reader at least something to cling to, an idea of who he is and what the core points of his character will be. It's a good way of dealing with an unavoidable situation.

From this start, Bill heads right into a thread where he is caught and held at gunpoint by Gervais. While the writing here can be sparse at points, it's a very good moment for both characters, and in retrospect is a quiet anticipation of a number of rather chilling executions that would turn up later in V7, including Bill's own fate. It's great as long as it's just the two boys, and it's still a good scene when others characters come out of the woodwork to intervene, but Bill himself gets somewhat lost in the goings-on because he's not someone who takes much of an active role in action; he's at his best when the scene is a discussion, not a fistfight. When an injured Drew takes off, Bill races after him, which is at least a strong moment that characterizes Bill well.

Unfortunately, the search for Drew is a non-starter, as Bill stumbles into an odd thread with Forrest's group where he struggles to integrate with the flow of the scene, and then to a one-shot where he does his best to make peace with his situation through his faith. Then it's on to the death. Bill is caught unaware by Nia, and once again finds himself on the wrong side of a gun. It's a good echo of his earlier encounter with Gervais, though I think a thing that could perhaps have been dwelt upon more is the differences in Bill's reaction; the first time, he's almost resigned, while the second he's more invested in trying to talk Nia out of actually shooting him. Is this because he's just been confronted with actual death in the form of the body he found? Is he reluctant to leave because he has yet to find Drew? Is his faith faltering? There are many good possibilities here, but I wish they'd been teased out a bit more directly, as right now the pivot serves more to push Nia's fall into villainy than it does to progress Bill's own internal narrative. Still, it's not bad by any means.

I find myself appreciating Bill more when I view him as a whole in retrospect, especially in light of themes from his story that are echoed throughout the version. At the same time, I would say that his story is decidedly front-loaded; he starts on a high, meanders somewhat in the middle, and closes strong enough but without quite recapturing the best moments of the start of his run. - MurderWeasel